Starting on Saturday, USF students and staff will no longer be able to use their USF IDs to board Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) buses.

Instead, they will have to use something called a “Flamingo card,” which they must pick up on campus, to ride the bus. 

Aaron Nichols, a spokesperson for USF facilities, said the previous fare discounts from the U-Pass program will remain in place. 

USF students will still ride free on HART buses with the Flamingo card and faculty and staff will still pay 50 cents.

After the implementation, USF IDs will no longer be eligible for discounted fares — only the Flamingo card will be accepted.

Related: USF parking has cashed in over $25M in permit sales since 2021

Sage Miller, a senior chemistry major, relies on the HART bus for transportation and uses the bus “multiple times a week.” Miller said they are “skeptical” of the change. 

“Part of it is also just having another physical card to keep track of,” Miller said. “I understand that it’s a small extra step to get the card, but it just feels very hostile.”

Students and staff must go in person to the Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) office off Plum Drive to receive their Flamingo cards. The office is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If students and staff get their cards through the HART website, the cards will not be linked to their USF accounts and will not transfer the U-Pass program for discounted fares. This means they would have to pay the general public fare. 

For the general public, “Flamingo Fares” are $18 for three consecutive days, $25 for a week and $85 for a monthly pass.

Related: Meet Tracy DeCrescenzo: USF Bull Runner driver, Brooklyn kid, rock star 

Miller said they are concerned about accessibility barriers for the card since the student and staff rates will only be available through physical Flamingo cards distributed by PATS.

“It also just places what I believe is an undue limit on how efficiently students can use public transit,” Miller said. “I think my student ID should be sufficient to access any kind of discounted or free service we get as students.”

Lukas Allington, a sophomore environmental science and policy major, uses the HART bus every day to get to class. He also brings his bike because he gets off the bus roughly two miles from campus.

Allington said he wasn’t aware of the change.

“I had no idea this change was happening,” Allington said. “Off-campus students who use the HART will likely be surprised, like me, because I’ve seen very little announcement of this change.”

Related: Tampa takes next step toward improving transit between USF and downtown

Advertisements for the change have been posted on signs around campus and at Bull Runner stops. Some buses also have the announcement on the inside, which Nichols said will stay up even after the implementation.

As of last week, Marlyn Medina, a customer service worker at PATS, estimated that “about half” of USF students who use the HART bus had already transitioned to the Flamingo card.